Annunciator



B. R. KABIGTING.

ANNUNCIATOHH APPLICATION FILED FEB. l. 1921.

.1;396636, Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

BRL/wmf B. n. KABIGTING.

ANNUNCIATOR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. l. 192|.

. zg Z7 Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

,Emy [lll lll/ll ,II/II l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANNUNCIATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

Application filed February 1, 1921. Serial No. 441,580.

T 0 all w hom t may concern Be it known that I, BERNARD R. KABIG- rino, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Annunciators; and l do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Guests of hotels and occupants of rooms in apart-ment and office buildings are subjected to frequent annoyance by having parties suddenly enter the room without warning or being announced. Moreover, callers are frequently at a loss to know whether the occupant of a room is in orout.

This invention provides means advantageous alike to the caller and to the guest or occupant of a room, since the caller may be informed at once whether the party visited is in or out and the guest or occupant of a room may be advised as to the Vnature of the caller.

The invention consists of indicating means preferably applied to a door leading to a room and embodying corresponding legends to be simultaneously displayed both within and without the room lso that the guest or occupant of the room and the visitor or caller will have like legends displayed for their observation and information and thereby be enabled'to govern the1nselves accordingly.

The invention consist-s of an appliance of the character herein specified embodying indicatinof means in duplicate, one set being displayted within the room and the other set appearing upon the outside ofthe room.-

Suitable gearing and operating means arel provided as adjunctive means for the proper actuation of the working parts.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent and suggest themselves as the nature of the invention is understood.

lVhile the drawings illustrate an embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that in adapting the same to meet different conditions and requirements, various changes in the form, proportion and minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing. from the nature of the invention.

Reference being had to thea'ccompanying" drawings forming a part of the specification,

Figure l is a view of a portion of a door as seen from the outside having indicating means applied thereto in accordance with the invention,I

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. l of the inside of the door,

Fig. 3 is a vertical vsection on the line X-X of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is ay vertical section on the line Y-Y of Fig. 2,

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view of a portion of the casing showing the spring actuated roller and a portion of the indicating apron cooperating therewith, and

Fig. 6 is a sectional detail of the loose ratchet wheel for operating the bell showing the yieldable connection between it and the drive gear.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and designated in the several views of the drawings by like reference characters.

Vhile the invention is particularly adapted to be applied to the door leading to ay room, nevertheless it may be fitted to a wall of the room in such a manner as to admit of the indicating mechanism being displayed both upon the inside and the outside of the room. For convenience the in vention is shown applied to the door leading to a room, said door being indicated by the numeral 1. The working parts of the device are suitably housed. The housing is suitably mounted on the door or other supporting structureI or part. The housing comprises an intermediate portion 2 and end portions 2 and 2".V The part 2 is scoured to the inner side of the door so as to face within the room. The part 2b is secured to the outer side of the door so as to face the hall. An endless strip 4 is supported within the part 2 and bears suitable legends or words, such as In and Out. The endless strip 4 is suitably supported upon guide rollers 7 and 8 in a manner to be operated from a ypoint within the room. Push buttons 5 and 6 are supplied as convenient means for operating the endless strip 4 and are attached to opposite runs of theendless strip 4. Pressure upon one of the push buttons moves the endless strip 4 in one direction to expose the word In and'. pressure upon'the other Ypushbutton moves the endless strip 4 in an opposite direction to bring the word Out in position to be read. The words In and Out appear at an observa-tion 9 formed in the front 10 secured to and closing the outer end of the part 2 of the housing.

Suitable legends suchas Friend Bell Boy, Visitor cHousekeeper" 4and the like are provided in duplicate and .corresponding legends are disposed so as to simultaneously appear upon both sides of the door 1 or like part. This results in like information being imparted both to the occupant of the room and the visitor or caller. Any suitable and convenient supporting means may be provided to receive the legends. Suitable openings are provided for n displaying the legends and these openings V disk 3 is fast to are preferably covered by transparent material.

The legend supporting means preferably consists of an apron 11 and is adapted to be operated in a convenient and positive manner. In the preferable arrangement gearing is employed. The gearing may be in the form of a train or involve any preferred construction best adapted for the purpose. Actuating means are in coperative relation with the gearing and include a disk 3 and a member 12. The member 12 is of cylindrical form and is rotatably mounted on the intermediate portion 2 of the housing. The the outer end of the part 12 so as to rotate therewith. The disk 3 is mounted within the outer part 2b of the housing and is formed in its outer face with a plurality of finger depressions 13. The inner walls of the linger depressions 13 re` ceive the legends such as the words Bell Boy, Housemaid, Friench Housekeeper, Visitor and the like. The front of the housing 2b is closed by means of a plate 14 in which is formed a circular opening 15 to admit of access being'V had to the disk 3. A bar 16 extends across the opening 15 and constitutes a stop to limit movement of the disk 3 in one direction. Movement of the disk 3 is effected by introducing a finger of the hand in any one of the depressions 13 and pulling the disk in a clockwise direction, rotation of the disk being limited by engagement of the finger with the bar 16 in a manner readily understood A bevel-gear wheel 17 is secured to the inner end of the tubular member 12 and its teeth are in mesh with the teeth of a bevel-pinion 18 fast to the inner end of a shaft 20. sprocket gear 21 fast to the shaft 20 is connected by means of sprocket chain 22 to a corresponding sprocket wheel 23 fast to a shaft 24 paralleling the shaft 20. A spur gear 25 fast to the shaft 24 is in mesh with a spur gear 26 secured to an end portion of a roller 27. One end of the apron 11 is secured to the roller 27 and is adapted to wind thereon. The opposite end of the apron 11 is secured to a spring actuated roller 28 and is normally wound thereon. Corresponding legends appear on the disk 3 and apronn 11, the same being so disposed that when the disk linger depressions 13, opposite the stop 16, the corresponding word or legend of said depression app-ears at the observation opening 29 of the housing 2a. Obviously the disk 3 and intermediate connecting means move against the tension of the spring coperating with the roller 28 and when the 'disk 3 is released, the parts are returned to normal condition by the spring action of the roller 28. The front of the housing 2a is closed by means'of a plate 30 in which the obscrvation opening 29 is formed.

An alarm is associated with the annunciator and forms a part thereof and attracts attention. when the annunciator is operated from a point without the room. This alarm consists of a bell 31 and a hammer 32, the latter being actuated by means of a ratchet wheel 33 loosely mounted upon an end portion of the housing 2. A yieldable connection 34- is interposed between the bevel-gear 17 and the ratchet wheel 33 and is suflicient to move the ratchet wheel forwardly when the gear wheel 17 is actuated to effect rotation ofthe roller 27 to wind the indicating strip 11 thereon. Return of the gear wheel 17 to normal position after being actuated does not effect retrograde movement of the ratchet wheel 33. The connecting means 34: consists of a spring preferably seated in a recess formed in the rear side of the ratchet wheel 33. This is shown most clearly in Fig. 6.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 2 of the drawings it will be observed that the part 32 acts in the dual capacity of a hammer and a paw] or click. Rotation of the ratchet wheel' in one direction vibrates the part 32 and sounds the alarm, the teeth of the ratchet wheel riding on the end of the part 32 in ,contact therewith. Any tendency of the ratchet wheel 33 to rotate in a `reverse direction is prevented by the part 32 which operates as a detent in conjunction with the teeth of the ratchet wheel as will be readily appreciated.

lV-hen an annnnciator embodying the invention is properly installed, it is visible from a point within and without the room. When the occupant is present, the indicator is adjusted to present the word In so that a caller or visitor may be properly informed of the occupancy of the room. When the person is absent the indicator is adjusted to present the word Out so as to convey the information to a visitor or caller that the room is unoccupied. The nature of a visitor or caller may be announced to the occupant of a room by proper adjustment of the annunciator to bring the desired word or legend into observable position. By having like legends or words appear simultaneously upon both dials the person setting the annunciator may be advised ot the proper display ot the selected legend.

That is claimed is:

l. An annunciator of the character specified, comprising a rotatable member, an apron bearing legends and geared to an end ot the rotatable member to be operated thereby to bring the required legend into visible position, and an operating member at the opposite end of the rotatable member and bearing legends corresponding with the legends appearing on the said apron.

Q. An annuneiator of the character specilied, comprising a rotatable member, an apron bearing legends and geared to an end of the rotatable member to be operated thereby to bring the required legend into visible position, an operating member atthe opposite end ot the rotatable member and bearing legends corresponding with the legends appearing on said apron, and yieldable means normally holding the parts in a given position and automatically returning them to normal position when released after being operated.

3. An annunciat-or of the character specified comprising a rotatable member, a legend bearing apron, a spring actuated roller for said apron, gearing between said spring actuated roller and one end of the said rotatable member, and an operating member at the opposite end of the rotatable member and bearing legends corresponding to those of the said apron.

4:. In an annunciator of the character specified, an operable member, annunciator means, connecting means between the two including a gear wheel, an alarm including a ratchet wheel loosely mounted in line with the said gear wheel, and yieldable connecting means between the ratchet wheel and gear wheel to cause the two to move in unison in one direction but admit ot return movement ot the gear wheel without eltecting corresponding movement of the ratchet wheel.

5, An annunciator of the character specilied comprising a hollow rotatable member, corresponding legend bearing means at opposite ends ot' said member, one ot said means serving as operating means 'for rotating the member, and an independent legend displaying member disposed within the said rotatable member.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence ot two witnesses.

BERNARD R. KABGTING.

Vitnesses:

Giro. H. HUNGERFORD, V. E. GINDICE. 

